Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Dogs and urban neighborhoods

Friends of mine will know that I'm very much a dog person. I'm even a bit of an anti-cat person, and this is in no small part a result of my asthma-inducing allergy of cats. I especially hate kittens, because I am irresistibly drawn to pet them and initiate half a days worth of wheezing and sneezing. I am powerless over the cute, it seems.

But I digress. I'm talking about dogs here, people, and their positive impact on cities. This is a real estate blog, right? I thought so. Anyway, a number of blogs have picked up on the idea that dogs are good for cities because they equal pedestrians. This, in turn, helps makes neighborhoods safer. I'm supportive of this idea.

This also reminds me of a friend of mine who lives in Capitol View recently got a Great Dane/German Shepherd mix that comes up to my knees and is as tall as I am when stands on two feet. The dog likes to put both front paws on the front door and stare at you out the window when you knock on the door. I'm hoping that will dissuade any potential robber, but you never know. Friends of mine who have gotten dogs for the purpose of home protection more often than not end up in over their heads, and/or with dogs that aren't very good guard dogs. I think the sheer size of this dog will do the trick, though.

My dog, of course, isn't going to scare anyone. He's 35 pounds of "yip". He's a decent size, but sounds like a chihuahua. He actually sets of the "glass break" warning for the house alarm. Sigh. La novia's dog, though, has a nice deep bark and is big enough to make you pause when she growls. She's a total softy, of course, but no one needs to know that.

Another, completely unrelated, reason dogs are better than cats - when was the last time your cat saved you from a cougar?

That's an interesting thought about dogs being pedestrians and I guess they do add to the vibrancy of the city's street culture when they're being walked on sidewalks. Also, it doesn't hurt to have dogs as an extra set of "eyes on the street" in an urban area -- a concept I'm find of.

I'm a cat person purely by marriage (my wife came with 2 cats). In their defense, they certainly keep the house free of pests. We live in an old creaky condo and a roach will occasionally inside -- but with two cats on the prowl, the only roaches we ever see are dead ones.

That's a great point. Dogs are pedestrians and they make many important contributions to city life.

If there is a problem with an off-leash dog or a dog whose owner doesn't clean up after him, then that is the fault of the human, not the dog. Those owners should be held accountable for their poor conduct but that is hardly a reason to keep our canine citizens off the streets.

Gosh I had never thought about that before but you're right! Dogs=pedestrians, which is just what this city needs. I have noticed at night when I'm in Midtown that the pedestrians I see are often walking a dog, but I never put two and two together.

I am, in fact, a cat person but if dogs will help us make this city more of a walker's paradise, woof woof!

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